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I inadvertently started a firestorm of hot buttered controversy at the Toronto International Film Festival after bemoaning the fact that I couldn’t find popcorn at the Ryerson Theatre.

Or pop. Or candy. So I smuggled in my own popcorn and bags of Twizzlers. After all, the best part of a movie is eating a giant vat of buttery kernels, isn’t it?

For the past week I’ve been on the overnight shift watching Midnight Madness films — the best new science fiction, fantasy and horror movies on the planet.

On my fourth sleep-deprived, popcorn-less day watching Hellbenders, a comic horror about irreverent priests, I went on a rant about not being able to buy munchies at the Ryerson Theatre where the late-night program is held.

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“The real sacrilege is the absence of a concession stand at a festival that celebrates the spirit of the modern-day drive-in movie. It’s like going to Yankee stadium and not having a hot dog,” I wrote with my early-morning snack-starved brain.

Or so I thought.

I got plenty of feedback from fans who agreed with me. But there were also many who called for my head. Some wanted blood and called for my press pass to be revoked.

Popcorn-gate exploded on social media as fans heatedly debated the pros and cons of eating popcorn at art-house movies.

On one level, it got to the heart of why the ritual of eating snack food in a darkened theatre carries such relevance in popular culture. It also untapped an angry vein in theatregoers who have seen a breakdown in etiquette — the slow decline of Western civilization in people who text, block your view, and drip butter on your lap.

My favourite line was from Steve Fisher, a contributor to online news source OpenFile who also ushers at TIFF: “Wong shouldn’t be admitted into our theatre again until his paper publishes a retraction and apology and Wong is forced to pick up popcorn kernels on his hands and knees,” he wrote.

Ouch. Now I’m afraid to tell him about the Big Mac I gobbled at the theatre later in the week. (Though I did stuff the wrapper in my knapsack.)

“Who wants to have somebody eating nachos and chips and dripping cheese all over them when they’re trying to watch a movie?” reader John Cormos wrote me. “You should be ashamed of yourself. It’s disrespectful to the director to even be eating in the theatre at a festival.”

Cormos may have a point. It may seem slightly sacrilegious to be watching the avant-garde black-and-white Portuguese film Tabu while downing a taco. But what about something like Seven Psychopaths?

At the Montreal Film Festival popcorn has been traditionally been forbidden at certain venues. In the eyes of founder Serge Losique, soccer hooliganism may be less of a transgression. But while Montreal’s festival presence has diminished over the years, Toronto’s star keeps rising.

I’d like to think it was because we didn’t ban popcorn outright. And I did have a few supporters.

“You’re absolutely right. I can’t watch a movie without popcorn. Sometimes that’s the best part of the film,” says Grace Leeds.

Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes says popcorn simply isn’t an option at the Ryerson, because it’s not a purpose-built cinema.

“I’d love to have the audience have popcorn but we’re a slave to the screens of Toronto,” says Geddes. “There are very few places in town that can accommodate that many people.”

The 1,200-seat Ryerson Theatre is only used 11 days of the year for TIFF as a movie theatre, and the projection equipment is removed after the festival, he says.

“It’s unfair to complain about having no popcorn, because the Ryerson Theatre isn’t a true movie theatre,” says Geddes.

However, while the Ryerson doesn’t allow popcorn, the much tonier Elgin Theatre (a.k.a. the Visa Screening Room), a national historic site, does. So does Roy Thomson Hall.

“Popcorn is a large part of the moviegoing experience for many patrons attending TIFF,” says Roy Thomson Hall spokesperson Stephen McGrath.

Meanwhile, the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema announced Thursday that it just got a liquor license. So you can have a beer with your popcorn while taking in a movie.

Popcorn was introduced as a snack food around 1840, according to Andrew Smith’s Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America.

It was first sold outside silent movie theatres, and owners hated it because it made a mess. Today it’s a major source of revenue — and a ritual for many people who go to the movies.

Including me. I was once kicked out of the media seats at a press screening because I carried a giant bucket of popcorn and an extra-large Pepsi to my seat. The disbelieving usher refused to believe a schlub like me was actually there to review a film.

Ironically, Hellbenders writer and director J.T. Petty (The Burrowers) made an important argument for the theatre experience.

He thanked Geddes for putting on the annual festival. “With technology anyone can see this stuff, but they’re watching it on computers and laptops, not the way it should be seen.”

Geddes responded by saying the way we consume films is “killing the experience. Does anyone’s couch fit 1,200 people?”

Yeah, but I can eat popcorn on my couch.

The Ryerson Theatre is a fine venue, but it’s a sterile shell compared with dedicated movie houses such as the Uptown, where Midnight Madness was held since the ’90s after shifting from the Bloor. But it seems moving the festival is not an option.

“I’d never move it to somewhere else just because of popcorn,” says Geddes.

Darn.

So is a film festival the place to indulge our modern-day gluttony for saturated fats?

I’m not sure. But I could sure use a sugary caffeinated drink right about now.

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